Following the announcement of investments underway in 177 projects valued at $5.8 billion, prominent businessman Ram Bajekal says these are sort of numbers that were bandied around in the past but they were very skeptical about it because they often saw these so-called investments as pretty dubious ones, however, they are now seeing genuine investment coming in.
While speaking during People's Dialogue on the 2025-2026 Budget Forum organised by Dialogue Fiji, Bajekal, who is the CEO of Golden Manufacturers Group, believes this has changed now and they are seeing genuine investments coming in.
He says major organisations like Sofitel and Google are getting involved in a big way and at the FICA Congress, it was mentioned that Wonderful Company is looking to invest significantly.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad says from the engagement they have had with the private sector and the policies they have created, there is a lot of confidence in the economy.
He says the rate at which investment potential has been realised—and some investments taken up — has faced challenges where there have been issues with how quickly, transparently, and efficiently we have been able to facilitate these processes.
Professor Prasad says concerns include immigration, the labour market, and bureaucratic approvals.
He says all of these factors affect the ease of doing business, and they acknowledge that and are still actively working to address many of these challenges.
Meanwhile, Bajekal also says debt does not worry the private sector when it is walled off for investing in capital capacity, which will yield incomes in the future.
He says this is something that the government needs to watch because if debt is for meeting obligations of an operating nature or to pay off previous debts, then that is a concern and certainly something that the private sector would not do.
He says the private sector will also look at the serviceability of the debt.
